Legion of Sand’s Top 10 Con Moments of 2016: #2

Another convention year in the books and every Thursday for the rest of 2016, I will be sharing my favorite con moments of the year. These moments could be something such as attending a panel, meeting someone, a purchase etc. If you’d like to see my top 10 con moments from 2015, you can check them out right here.

The Random Run Ins at San Diego Comic Con
Two previous moments of my top 10 of 2016 were about meeting people at SDCC. This time around for my #2 moment however is a little different. While two previous entries were planned, I knew it was happening, these encounters were totally random, the type of moments SDCC goers hope for every July as all sorts of industry professionals and celebrities converge on San Diego.

The first random run in was maybe the most exciting. It was preview night at SDCC and was I walking from Enchanment Under the SDCC party back to the convention center around midnight to catch a shuttle back to my hotel. There was a long line of important looking people standing outside of the Hardrock Hotel as security was checking them in one by one. I’m looking down the line and I spot none other then video game legend Hideo Kojima. I stop in my tracks and contemplate my next move. I walk up to him and quickly ask him for a picture as the last thing I want is for people to notice me taking a photo with someone. He graciously says yes and I proceed to take the worst photo of myself possible. Enjoy interent.

The second random run in was at the Final Fantasy symphony taking place on Thursday during the con. Hironobu Sakagutchi, creator of Final Fantasy, was scheduled to do a panel before the start of the symphony so I knew he was going to be there but I didn’t know if I would have a chance to snag a quick pic of him. The concert ends and I am walking to my car and leaning against the building with his daughter and taking a few puffs from his cigarette was Sakagutchi. I adore the early Final Fantasy games and some of his other monster hits such as Chrono Trigger and Lost Odyssey so to get a photo with a legend was something I was glad to have accomplished.

The last random run was a complete chance meeting. Saturday afternoon, the family and I wanted to get a bite to eat so we decided to make the walk to TGIFridays (hey, we have like one left in Phoenix so we took the chance to dine there lol). We were seated next to someone that looked really familiar but I couldn’t place where I knew him. We were separated by a small divider so I forgot about it and went about my business. It hits me its Nobu from the Netflix series Daredevil, Peter Shinkoda. As they were getting ready to leave, we approached him just to say hi and he couldn’t have been a nicer guy. He spoke with my family and I for nearly 15 minutes, talking about comic con and Daredevil. His manager was with him and offered to give us a promotional photo that Peter signed for us. He was also nice enough to take a photo with my son.